Books I've Loved: The Museum of Intangible Things

I loved this book.  It deals with mental illness in a very real, heartbreaking way.  But more importantly, it's a book about friendship.  The kind of intense best-friendship that seems to only exist in teenage girls.  The inseparable kind of friendship where you would do anything for your friend, follow them anywhere and know they'll have your back whatever happens.

There is a love story in there too, but for me, that took second place to the friendship between the two girls.  Reading it, it occurred to me how few books actually focus on female friendship - especially in YA.  Female characters always have friends, even good friends, but they're almost always secondary to the romance.  I'm as guilty of that as any other writer so finding a great friendship book really made my year.

If you don't believe me, here's the blurb….

Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).

Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.

As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance, karma, and even happiness.

An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.